Archives: journal

Well today was certainly one for the garden. I got my grass cut which was great as it had been annoying me. With all the rain we have had of late the grass had grown and I prefer to keep it short. In spite of the sun the soil is still very damp.

At long last I got around to planting the Yucca Gloriosa I bought at the Rare Plant Sale in St. Ann’s Park.  I also planted up a Tree Peony in a large pot. I had been give two as a gift last summer and had potted them into small pots. I just don’t have the space to plant them in the soil so I hope they do well in the large pot. It also means I can move it about as desired. I also potted up a large leaved sage which I had been given last summer also.

With all the growth in recent weeks I had to cut back some things before they took over. The gravel garden is now looking very mature in just five short years and today it certainly lived up to it’s Mediterranean atmosphere. It got so warm there. I just hope we get more days like this. It feels so good to spend so much time out in the fresh air.

Here is a photo of a tiny geranium I planted about year ago. I must say I did not realise it would grow so large (about 1 m wide and 40 cms tall at this stage). Its filling out part of a border and is in a good spot, but I’m going to have to move a couple of plants who are being literally overshaddowed by it!

The first flowers opened a couple of days ago, and I think they are really pretty (I love geraniums so I find them all pretty, but I love the veined pink petals on this one). I looked for its name in the garden plants encyclopedia, but could not find it. If anybody knows the name I’d be interested!

A beautiful sunny day.

There was a water fight in my garden in the morning and my youngest drenched himself with the hose a couple of times. Everyone was happy and in a good mood.

I am exhausted though as myself and the husband worked all day. Nothing like knowing the digger is going to focus the mind!  Too tired to take photos or talk about it but will do soon.

Oh, but I did notice pears on our pear trees – an exciting first!

It is so frustrating as  I have done something strange to my index finger. This has the effect of reducing my capacity to pull out weeds – shock… The weather has the weeds jumping out of the ground. However it has the positive effect of my having to work more slowly and hence look about me a little more. yesterday realised the advantages of Natures free gifts in my garden. Most things that Nature gives me I welcome but at the moment I am surrounded by flag iris, foxgloves, ragged robin a yellow vetch and my wild rhodedendron. I try to accommodate all these into the overall canvas of my garden. They also give me loud clues of what will grow where. My garden is VRY limey except for an acid strip where the rhodedendron grows. it was here before me and gave me a false signal in the beginning. I assumed I had an acid garden and until I had lost many acid lovers I continued this delusion. Now I have my acid lovers queued up like soldiers on either side of the monster rhodedendron! I only grow lime tolerant stuff elsewhere. 

Promised to report on flora of France but not sure I am qualified.  This is just my impression.  We were staying in my sister’s house in Recey sur Ource in the Burgundy region or Cote d’or.  The house is a very old one and was originally the village post office.  The walls are stripped stone inside and are three feet thick so is always cool inside.  It is situated in the main "place" or Square.  about 400 inhabitants mostly rural and farming area.  Markets come to the square weekly.  NO  PUB.. can you imagine that in Ireland. Did not matter to us.

Was delighted to see  lots of container gardens.  very few gardens as such.  Houses on narrow roadsides no footpaths,  flowers in every crevice.  saw the most beautiful red climbing rose ever.  It was growing on many houses and plucked up courage to knock on a door and in halting  school french ask for a cutting.  This was gladly given so had to sneak them in (not easy).  Now its down to nature to see what happens.  It had the most glorious perfume.

The towns and villages had lots of flowers in public places but each house had very little space for growing.  Was consoled with my tiny garden.   Ireland certainly leads the way in meticulous gardens.  those that had any were not the neat lush gardens of Ireland.  Have to agree with Olga  Ireland is the Mecca of gardens.

Photo is one of my own cacti as airlines dictate luggage and I had to leave my camera at home so no french or german photos.  Only stayed in germany arrival night and departure night 

I never normally do hanging baskets but last summer my youngest, Sammy, pointed out a hanging basket at his school and demanded to know why "we haven’t got any of them". So, just to please him but also to try out tender Fuchsias, I ordered a set of three Giant Fuchsias by mail order this January.

The Fuchsias arrived in April and looked very measly. I immediately took three cuttings as I wanted two hanging baskets and thought I should have three plants in each. Following instructions in my book, I potted on the original plants and continued to pinch out the new stems to make the plants bush.

Unfortunately one of my cuttings died but the other two did well, although they haven’t caught up with the original plants. I removed the plastic some time ago and pinched them out once.  Today I finally planted up my two hanging baskets – one with 2 bigger plants and the other with one bigger plant and the two cuttings. I put in water containing gel and a small pot in each basket to make a watering hole right to the plants’ roots. They are hung on brackets in the greenhouse, where I will probably leave them. Can’t wait to see the giant flowers. I believe they come in six weeks from when you stop pinching out so that means the second week in July!

There were no starving slugs or snails in Westport!…

I was so furious I forgot to stop adding the dreaded slug pellets.  of course it was too late.

Today the weather has improved cardinally. Our crazy thermometer on indicator panel showed +27. I’m inclined to believe that, cause it was really warm and dry and sunny.

But! Weather forecasts say this heaven will last till weekend only 🙁 The only consolation is that this weekend is not summer weekend yet.

I put all summer flowers to the balcony and sure they will enjoy these warm days. 

The chiidren were taking a look at their recently planted little patch of garden tonight (see album ‘First steps’). They were disappointed to find one of the Gerberas looking a bit damaged. Has big munch holes, but also a number of leaf stems are bent and flower stem is snapped off.

It’s appearance reminded me of my recently planted rhubarb. In the first few weeks, it also seemed to have damaged leaves, which looked like they had been sat on and snapped. Also holes in leaves. I thought it was slug damage, and so set a beer trap. Caught a few, but not sure it was a big problem. New leaves are growing now and it looks much better, but I just wonder if something bigger thatn a slug was having a nibble? Could be the dog, but I am not convinced (she wouldn’t be eating the leaves anyway!) We are in a very rural area, so I wondered if it may be a rabbit? Any ideas anyone?

Not much done in the garden in the last 3 days; I just took a few pictures and looked at things growing… 

Went in Woodies this afternoon to get some more pots, and I bought basil, coriander seeds, and also radishes. I’ll sow the radishes outside, but will keep the basil inside. Not sure about the coriander. I might have some indoors and some outdoors. I made sure this time to get the "leaves" coriander, because a few years ago I bought the wrong coriander and got very tall herbs, and eventually seeds, but that’s not what I was looking for at all! Anyway, we use both these herbs quite a lot in cooking, so it’s worth the while and more fun to grow them (and less expensive also…)

All of the seeds I sowed are now out (not outside) and looking fine, I’m wondering if they will have enough time to flower this year though! I hope they do. I’m not used to growing things from seeds though so I’m a bit unsure as to what to do next with them. I suppose I will put the seedlings into larger pots when they are a bit bigger. The poppies seedlings are so tiny and thin that I don’t think I will be able to take them one by one…

The photo is of my blue clematis, it has more petals opening all of the time. The actual plant is not very big (only 6 flowers at the moment). The label I got for it only said blue clematis, but it looks similar to Vyvyan Pennell.

Now I am off preparing my picnic for Blooms tomorrow (assuming it will be as sunny and warm as the forecast says!)

What a gorgeous day…is it really Summer? Did lots of catch up work in the garden today. You can see by the new photos what I mean about the veggie beds bursting with growth…does anyone remember that film ‘Day of the Trifids’ well as you can see the calabrese are gone mad mad mad…and so dont know if I did the right thing but I cut off all the large leaves…there is no sign of any centres coming on…so into the compost with the leaves and will see how they do….

Planted 12 tomatoe plants out in grow bags and staked them…have decided that I will only allow them to have 1 truss each…so hope that works ok too…. also planted out the hydrangeas at last…they have survived and I’ve given them a good start….Hubby cut the grass so it looks like a lawn now…no buttercups…well not for another few days anyhow….placed all the potted up containers in their final resting place for the summer….Hubby also potted up his leeks and some purple sprouting brocolli!

Eating lots of  salad…think I’ll be sharing some with the neighbours…sharing is caring!!! Hope everyones been enjoying the sunshine.

Great day at Bloom today, not least because the weather was wonderful. It looks like the temperature went up to 22ºC at some point, incredible, this is summer!

My friend and I arrived at around 11:30, and I was amazed to see the amount of cars and people already there by then. The car park looked nearly full already at that time (not counting all of the cars parked along the roads in the Phoenix park). In spite of that, it didn’t feel crowded once we were in the actual show, so that was good.

We headed straight for the show gardens, and decided to shop last, to avoid having to carry too much around for too long. I liked most of the show gardens, but did not feel very confortable looking at the Keelings Naturally Fresh garden (ES10). The colours in that garden were really bright and happy and mad, but I couldn’t help thinking of these 100’s of beautiful fruit and vegetables roasting in the hot sun and possibly going to waste? (I hope not).

Some of my favourite gardens: the Honest 2 Goodness vegetable garden, the Secluded Water garden, the Edible classroom (I loved the herb boxes), and Ag Cur Baisti. Hard to remember it all now!

I liked the big walled garden also, although it has a lot of empty spaces still. 

I didn’t buy much at all in the end, just a few geraniums, a burgundy astrantia and a small lilac scented primula. There were a few really beautiful peonies, but they were expensive enough, and I’m always scared of buying a really expensive plant in case something awful happens to it, like it gets devoured by slugs within a few days!! I noticed quite a few really nice poppies around; didn’t get any as I am not sure where would be the best place for them in the garden at the moment, considering they were very tall. Another time may be!

I uploaded some photos of today in the Bloom 2009 album…